Willem Dafoe was kicked out of high school for 'making pornography'

Willem Dafoe is an accomplished actor, and surely it’s thanks to his artistic endeavors in high school — that didn’t seem to go as planned. Dafoe was on The Late show With Stephen Colbert, and he told a pretty unique story about how his budding creativity got him kicked out of high school.

Dafoe had a school project, and he was trying to do a magazine show in which he interviewed several students. “I interviewed three different students in the student body,” he said. “One considered himself a Satanist; one considered himself a nudist; and one was interested in legalizing pot.”

As expected with a cast of characters like that, Dafoe went a little crazy while shooting, he admits. By a little crazy, he meant he interviewed the nudist on the toilet; the Satanist brought out his pornography collection; and the guy that was interested in legalizing pot started talking about some of the people he sold it to. However, Dafoe swears none of these artistic filmmaking techniques would have made the final project.

When Dafoe began to edit his project, he stepped out for lunch one day, and while he was away a teacher noticed the adult material. Then when Dafoe came back to finish his project, the door was locked, and he was told to report to the principal’s office.

Dafoe went to the principal’s office to find his parents waiting for him. They said, “Oh, Willy, you’re making pornography!”

After being kicked out of school, Dafoe left town, crashed on a friend’s couch, and started going to the local university. So it seems like it all turned out well for Willem Dafoe.